Georgios KOSTAKOS

co-founder and executive director of the Foundation for Global Governance and Sustainability (FOGGS)

Antonio Guterres’ term as UN Secretary-General (UNSG) ends on 31 December 2026.  The final decision for electing his successor rests with the UN General Assembly, but the recommendation on whom to elect comes from the Security Council, where each of its five permanent members has a veto. Measures have been introduced to make the process more transparent, including public interactive dialogues with the candidates. But is that enough for choosing the right person for the job, and what characteristics should that person have to be able to succeed in this impossible role?

It is getting harder by the day to convince people that the United Nations and its Secretary-General could play a meaningful role in today’s geopolitical circumstances. Even though the UN’s raison-d’être is “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”, there is no proactive UN involvement in resolving any of today’s major conflicts, notably those in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Disillusionment is pervasive in view of the UN’s apparent struggle to even provide humanitarian assistance to populations in extreme need, while progress is lacking in the implementation of the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the Paris agreement on climate change.

Instead of helping the world, the UN is celebrating its 80th anniversary in self-preservation mode, using Guterres’ UN80 Initiative to cut posts and otherwise reduce expenses, in an effort to show that it is reforming itself. The hope is that this way the UN will please its major funders, especially the US. The latter, though, has been increasing its demands for a more compliant UN, while accumulating arrears and even withdrawing from UN system bodies, like the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNESCO.

The UN Charter defines the Secretary-General as “the chief administrative officer of the Organisation” (Article 97), endowing them also with the right to “bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security” (Article 99 – male pronouns are used throughout the UN Charter for the UNSG and there has been no female one as of now). These two assignments are symbolically considered to represent the ‘secretary’ and the ‘general’ part of the UNSG title, respectively.

Through their deft interchange of the roles of ‘secretary’ and ‘general’, past UNSGs like Dag Hammarskjöld (1953-1961), U Thant (1961-1971), Javier Pérez de Cuellar (1982-1991) and Kofi Annan (1997-2006) accumulated significant moral and political capital for the office of the UNSG. This capital, though, has been drastically depleted in recent years, following the resurgence of geopolitical rivalries between major powers and the timid exercise of the UNSG role by the incumbents.  

Can the election of a new UNSG lead to brighter days for the UN? Member states are not spoilt for choice, as there are only four publicly declared candidates (as of early May 2026), compared to a total of 13 candidates in 2016. Michele Bachelet from Chile and Macky Sall from Senegal are former presidents, while the Costa Rican Rebeca Grynspan has been vice president of her country, and the Argentinian Rafael Grossi has been a career diplomat. Three of the four have high-level UN experience – Bachelet is a former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Grynspan is currently the Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and Grossi is the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) – while the fourth, Sall, has served as African Union chairperson.

Any of the above candidates could claim the UNSG position as the culmination of a distinguished national and international career. The two women should have an additional advantage, as the election of a female UNSG is long overdue. Moreover, regarding geographical rotation, it is widely considered that the next UNSG should come from the Latin American and Caribbean region. The first ‘interactive dialogues’ with the UN General Assembly, on 21-22 April 2026, offered candidates an initial opportunity to make their case and to answer questions from member states, groups of member states, regional organisations and civil society. There will be several more such opportunities in the coming months. It is too early to name any favourites, as additional candidates are expected to join the race, which has no firm deadline for the submission of new candidatures.

The primary consideration for the recruitment of UN Secretariat staff, which presumably also applies to the UNSG as head of the Secretariat, is to secure “the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity” (UN Charter Article 101.3). Considering also the dual (‘secretary’ and ‘general’) role of the UNSG, one realises that this is about recruiting the CEO of a global public utility, with a complex system of specialised subsidiaries that provide/regulate certain global public goods, foremost among them peace and security. It also carries elements of electing a secular ‘pope’ – female candidates not excluded – a morally authoritative figure who can stand up for the principles of humanity and the UN Charter, warning country leaders in the event of trespassing.

Moreover, the new UNSG would need to know the capabilities of the UN machinery and be determined to put them to good use. A person ready to get advice from and work with people of all nationalities, mobilising all Secretariat departments and UN system entities, comfortable both at headquarters and in the field, having the capacity to speak convincingly to world leaders and communicate clearly the UN’s work to the average world citizen. Somebody with a clear understanding of how the international system works and bold enough to speak truth to power, when things seem to be going in the wrong direction. More than just talking, that person needs to be ready to travel to global hotspots and bring the weight of the UN and their office to bear on negotiations and on actual developments on the ground, even in tense and risky situations.

There is always the danger that the ‘interactive dialogue’ process, first introduced in 2016, for the (s)election of the new UNSG, may favour candidates who eloquently ‘tick boxes’ that please issue-specific UN member state and civil society constituencies, without testing the candidates’ capacity to actually deliver on those promises and on the broader global public goods. Furthermore, geopolitical considerations, especially among the P5, may not favour an efficient ‘secretary’ and effective ‘general’, or an exceptional CEO-cum-pope, as described earlier. If one or more candidates prove they possess the required skills and determination, even the infamously self-serving P5 may feel pressure to recommend them for the General Assembly to appoint one of them as UNSG. Let us root for that, for the sake of the UN and the world.

Photo credits: Shutterstock/lev radin, UkrPictures and A.PAES